Bill O’Reilly Threatens To Quit Investing “Aggressively” If His Taxes Go Up

Remember when Bill O’Reilly threatened to quit his job if tax hikes for millionaires were enacted? And then recanted? Well, it looks like Round 2 has just begun – Ding! Ding! Ding! In tonight’s Talking Points, O’Reilly threatened to stop “aggressively putting any money in the market” if President Obama raises capital gains taxes from 15% to 30%.

O’Reilly devoted an unusually long Talking Points segment to this subject so near and dear to his pocketbook heart. At about the 4:10 mark, he said, “President Obama would double the cap gains tax rate to 30% for EVERYBODY! Mr. Romney would keep it at 15%. Now, if you double cap gains, that would prevent me, a private investor, from aggressively putting any money in the market. The risk/reward is simply too great. I’m sure I’m not alone in that thinking.”

This strikes me as about as likely as O’Reilly quitting his job. Where’s he going to put his money if not in the market? In a savings account?CD? An investment that pays high dividends? According to O’Reilly, “Obama would tax dividends – stuff you get from savings, at 43.4% in the top bracket!” That’s an even higher rate than the capital gains tax.

This is not the first time O’Reilly has threatened to stop investing if capital gains go up. It probably won’t be his last, either. Whether he’ll really carry it out is another question.

Showing 9 reactions

“You make a lot of assumptions about what happens in my class. Why would you assume what is posted here ends up in class?”

Professor, this is a private, politically-themed blog — if what gets posted here ends up in your economics class, that actually says more about YOU than it does us.

“Or that my job is to indoctrinate rather than just teach theory?”

I was merely echoing the sentiments expressed by various rightwing noisemakers about public education in general, and higher education in particular — especially whenever President Obama takes the time out to talk to students . . .

“But if you donât believe me, check my reviews.”

I did; your students rate you 4.3 out of 5 overall, including 4.5 in helpfulness, 4.2 in clarity, and 2.0 in easiness.

The hotness category was left blank; draw your own conclusions . . .

“Moreover, since I personally favor drug legalization, a very small international presence for war etcâ¦I clearly donât follow some line with which you have associated me.”

Ah, I love this part: the good old, libertarian, “I believe in personal freedom” fallback.
“Finally, I enjoy the fact that most of the posts here cannot engage me without using an ad hominem attack . . . "

Other than mentioning the {apparent fact} that you’re a professor of economics at a California college, what “ad hominem attack” did I make in my post?

Professor, you took time out of grading papers for your summer sessions — or whatever it was you were doing — to make a comment on a political blog.

That comment had two parts: a personal declarative {"I won’t be investing either"} and a statement of opinion {"O’Reilly’s got it right — AGAIN"}

I could care less about the former, and I suspect few other people do . . . I would, however, like to reiterate what Aria requested, something you failed to do in your following screed: exactly WHERE did BillO “get it right”?

@Paul Roscelli: seeing as you’re a professor of economics at a CA college — and therefore “indoctrinating” the minds of young people — I doubt you’re being paid enough to invest much, anyway; teachers, firefighters, and policemen aren’t supposed to earn as much, or count as much, as the 1% . . . right?

@patrick tolle: ROFL — and here I thought it was a simple cranial immersion into the anal cavity; something else BillO appears to suffer from.

With all the apparent maladies he and other Faux sNooze employees seem to have, Rupert must have one heckuva health plan . . .

So what you’re saying, Bill-O, is that if you were to have $100,000,000 in capital gains and were only able to pocket $700,000 instead of $850,000, then you wouldn’t bother to invest. I call bullshit! No, make that BULLSHIT!! You would, you know you would, and you should just quit lying about it!

Look at it his way Bill, taxing your unearned income at the same rate as your earned income would allow the employment of more police, firemen, teachers and soldiers, or to pay down some of the debt we incurred by lowering those tax rates in the first place.